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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Cotopaxi or Bust.

On a clear day, this is the view of Volcan Imbabura from my walk to school.Though Troy shared our experience climbing this beauty previously, I thought I would post some pictures. (Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the guide crawling down backwards, though the image is forever engrained in my mind.)

At the beginning, it was nice enough outside, t-shirt weather even. But it wasn´t long before the clouds moved in and the snowy peak (yes that is snow) became more difficult to discern.

The view from the summit was that of a cloudy white-out (whch perhaps should have been one of our first clues that the descent would be....tricky?).

When the clouds briefly cleared, we could make out the general direction of the City below. We did not yet know at this point that we would be required to descend all the way to that City. Had we known, we probably would have given a little more thought to orienteering...

You can barely make out Troy in this next shot descending through the forest in a muddy, slippery stream (though I am sure he is smiling). Every time my feet slipped out from under me and I slid down on my butt, or better yet, every time I had the pleasure of witnessing the same thing happening to Troy or Erin, it reminded me of that scene from Jewel of the Nile, or was it Romancing the Stone (??) when they slide down the river through the jungle...Remember?

Celebrating our victory when we emerged to level ground just before dark. Only another 45 minute walk to go....

This evening we are heading to Quito to climb the glacier that is atop Cotopaxi. We will set out from the base refuge (at about 4600m) at midnight on Thursday and, if all goes according to the well laid plans of our qualified guides (we did better research this time), we will reach the summit at almost 5,900m sometime Friday morning. We have been fitted with all our gear from beleclavas to crampons and are excited to reach a glacier peak!

Photo Favorites

2011: Since returning home from the year of travel that was 2009, we spent 2010 struggling to strike a balance between establishing roots and entertaining urges to uproot. We think that a month in Nicaragua will be nothing, if not good for the soul.
...
2009: A year of volunteering and seeking adventure around the world.
The idea is simple enough and just feels right.
Maybe there was something in the spring air that day, or maybe we were under the influence of having had our eyes opened to a new reality last year on our visit to Africa, or maybe we had just grown restless, but we decided to leave our jobs, sell our house, and go out and see the world. Really see the world.

Moxy

Whenever I encounter something particularly difficult, no matter how trivial, say rain on a long run day or an impossible climb on a mountain bike trail, Troy says to me, "it's just testin' your moxy nic", to which my conditioned response has become "hey (insert obstacle here), is that all you got??!". Well, we have decided to step out of our comfort zone, test our moxy and ask the world, no matter what obstacles we face along the way, Hey World, is that all you got? We will, in turn, find out what we've got.

Our Journey

2011: Four weeks in Nicaragua, May 3-31.

2009: I hesitate to use the word 'itinerary' as I know that we are going to have to go with the flow and be extremely flexible. I can already here my sister's voice reminding me, as she has a million times in the past, "Nicole, there is Plan A, and then there's what really happens!"